Rachelle Buchbinder
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rachelle Buchbinder | |
|---|---|
 Rachelle Buchbinder, portrait from the exhibition 'Women', 2019 | |
| Born | 1958 (age 67–68) |
| Education | MBBS (Hons), MSc, PhD, FRACP |
| Alma mater | Monash University, University of Toronto |
| Occupations | Rheumatologist and clinical epidemiologist |
| Employer(s) | Monash University, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and Monash Department of Clinical Epidemiology – Cabrini Institute |
| Known for | Research into arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions, improving communication with patients and health literacy |
Rachelle Buchbinder (born 1958) is an Australian rheumatologist and clinical epidemiologist. Her clinical practice is in conjunction with research involving multidisciplinary projects relating to arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions. She promotes improvement of communication with patients and health literacy in the community.
Buchbinder holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, (MBBS) (Hons) from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.[1]
She earned a Master of Science (MSc) in Clinical Epidemiology from Toronto University, Canada in 1993. Her thesis topic was "The classification of soft tissue disorders of the neck and upper limb for epidemiological research."[2]
The topic for Buchbinder's doctoral dissertation was "Short and long-term effects of a public health media campaign designed to reduce disability associated with back pain.[3]" Her PhD was awarded in 2006 by Monash University, Melbourne.
Career
Buchbinder was made founding Director of the Monash Department of Clinical Epidemiology in 2001.[4] She became Professor in the Monash University Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in 2007.[4]
Buchbinder is currently (2020) an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Senior Principal Research Fellow.[5] She is also Coordinating Editor of the Cochrane Musculoskeletal Group[6] which "produces reliable, up-to-date reviews of interventions for the prevention, treatment or rehabilitation of musculoskeletal disorders in the form of systematic reviews."[7]
Buchbinder is a founding member and, current Steering Group Chair of the Australia & New Zealand Musculoskeletal (ANZMUSC) Clinical Trial Network.[8]
In 2015 Buchbinder was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.[9]
She was President of the Australian Rheumatology Association from 2016 to 2018[10] and is currently (2020) Chair, Australian Rheumatology Association Database (ARAD) Management Committee[4] and Registry Custodian of the Australian Rheumatology Association Database.[11]
Buchbinder chaired the steering group for The Lancet Low Back Pain Series[12][13][14] which published 3 papers in March 2018.[15] The series looks to reverse the trend of ineffective and dangerous treatments for lower back pain which has both personal and global impacts.[15]
She has a broad range of multidisciplinary research projects relating to arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions as well as improving communication with patients and health literacy[5] which are funded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) schemes and research grants. These include reducing over testing, over-diagnosis and waste in health care, identifying more efficient service delivery models, implementing the Australian Clinical Care Standard for osteoarthritis of the knee and developing a decision aid for knee arthroscopy, developing a set of outcome measures for trials of shoulder disorders, developing a Back Pain Burden Questionnaire and the Back Pain Misconceptions Questionnaire, investigating support for people with sub-optimal health literacy and studying the long term outcome of inflammatory arthritis in Australia.[4]
Buchbinder is frequently consulted as a spokesperson for evidence-based care and waste of resources in medicine particularly in her specialist fields.[16][17][18][19] By 2019 she had published over 540 papers, been cited 48,078 times,[20] and inspired many clinician-scientists.[9]
The high influence of her work is evidenced by her recognition by Clarivate Analytics as a Highly Cited Researcher (in top 1% by citations across more than one field) in both 2018 and 2019.[21][22]
